Snowball Viburnum
by LadyArrin
Summary: The biggest day of their lives. For the "secret" prompt for Bethyl Week. One-shot. 110% fluff. Marshmallow fluff.


**A/N: This is the first prompt for Bethyl Week over in Tumblr, word "secret". This is a selective prompt because the song suggestion didn't really fit but I've been wanting to write something that 110% fluff for ages. No violence, no smut, just good old fashioned jar of marshmallow fluff.**

The shopping trip for Beth's wedding dress had been a roaring success. Maggie had cried, Beth had cried, and even their father had cried. Glenn would never had admitted it but he had looked a little misty. Beth had been glowing as they put down the deposit and caught the return flight to Georgia. It was close, now. So close that sometimes it didn't seem real; she had to glance at the ring on her finger and the photo of her in the dress that she kept in her phone. A photo that he tried so hard to get into and was flatly denied, dismayed to find his tiny little fiance four steps ahead of him. She changed the password to her phone every week to a numerical equivalent to a part in one of her songs. Even if he found the cipher he would never be able to tell what song was used what week.

Beth closed the door and ditched her purse on the table beside the door. The house she and Daryl had bought was modest in size but almost too big for the two of them, a full three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Daryl had made a joke about keeping room for 'potential' when they had bought it but at the time they were still just a couple. A serious couple, yes, with intent on marriage, but it wasn't the right time for her. She had needed to graduate and find a job and eventually she had, teaching first graders in the same small town she had grown up in. The two of them were comfortable in their rural life. They were far enough out of the suburban sprawl that Daryl felt he was still in the woods and they weren't too far from either her sister or her father. The farm was still a crucial part of who she was as a person and Daryl had come to love it as though it was his own home, just as he had come to love her family. Her crazy, insane family who had accepted him once they'd each taken pains to tell him that if he ever broke her heart there would be half a dozen places on their farm alone that they could bury him and nobody would ever know. Her garage had been open and Daryl's truck was there and his brother's bike was parked in the drive so she had expected to see the pair of them up to their elbows in grease and working on the truck that Daryl was just too stubborn to give up. Instead she found them in front of the computer pouring over ways to get inside her phone, music blaring loud enough to hide her entrance and the dropping of her keys into the bowl on the table. Merle had taken a while to warm up to her; years in fact. It was only after her mother died that he had come around. The death of their mothers had damaged the both of them. In fact, it was Merle who had helped her recover, who had helped her reach out for Daryl when her pride told her otherwise. He was gruff and angry and overall not a person you would want staying at your home but he had a kind streak deep down in him that he refused to admit was there, but Beth saw it and so did his brother. The fact that they were trying so hard to see her dress made her smile. It was a secret and the family was taking fierce joy in hiding it from them. Daryl had gone so far as to get Glenn drunk off his secret stash of moonshine but even trashed all her sister's husband had been able to do was laugh hysterically at him. In hindsight perhaps moonshine wasn't the best choice for an interrogation.

"Not gonna work, boys." She had to raise her voice to be heard over the music, a smile touching her lips as they both jumped guiltily. "You're just gonna have to wait." Their house was open and airy which had been one of Beth's few requirements. You could see the whole first floor from the entry way, from the spacious kitchen to the living room where their TV had been set up, Beth's desk in the corner. Over the years they had filled the walls with photos of the two of them, art, and even a mural they had done together (it turned out that Daryl was better with a paintbrush than she was). Her array of guitars, amplifiers, and her keyboard were tucked in the corner waiting for further use. "You staying for dinner, Merle?"

"Nah, little sister. Got places to be." He ruffled her hair on the way past. "I'll see you this weekend."

It was here. Finally, the wedding was here. They had decided to have a small but intimate out-door wedding at a small place in the mountains followed by dinner and dancing elsewhere on the property. In true Beth style the favors were actually hooded sweatshirts with "Dixon/Greene Wedding" and the date to help keep the late September chill off of their guests when night rolled around. It was a perfect afternoon with the light hitting the trees just so, making them sing with color and vibrancy. Everything had taken on a golden sheen and Daryl, who was waiting on the grass in a grey suit with his brother and brother-in-law standing next to him, was terrified. He was shaking and couldn't seem to stop; not even his brother's steady hand on his shoulder was enough to make him calm down. He wasn't allowed to turn around, not until Beth had reached the 'aisle' she would walk down. Their only music for the ceremony was an acoustic guitar playing a small tune Beth had written herself. It was when the notes reached his ears that he was allowed to turn around and see his wife walking down the grass towards him. His world narrowed and all he could see was her. She was floating down towards him as an icon of ivory lace, a trumpet shaped gown that cut her close but flowed around her legs. He could see the lace reaching across her collarbones to fasten at the back of her neck, see the golden waves of her hair bound into a braid over one shoulder with Snowball Viburnum bound into it to match her bouquet. He wasn't even aware he was crying until Glenn pressed a tissue into his palm. The hand on his shoulder squeezed. Daryl had never thought he could happy. He thought he would never escape his father, never find a woman who would love him without judgement, love him without anything holding her back. She loved him with her entire heart; he saw the truth of the universe in her blue eyes. He was enchanted by how she couldn't function in the morning without at least two cups of coffee. Her kindness when dealing with even the most shy of children in her class. He loved the way she would play for him on a Saturday night with idle strumming and a glass of wine on warm summer nights, inside next to the fire place as they watched rain pelt against the windows. Daryl loved the way he packed her lunch in the morning before heading to the garage and he loved the fact that she still used a lunchbox. He was addicted to the way that she would curl against him in her sleep and never let him go, moving with him and curling around his pillow if he left the comfort of their bed. Beth was his salvation, his reason for living, his reason for breathing. She was the first thing he saw when he woke up and the last thing he saw before he slept and usually he saw her in his dreams (although he would never tell her so). He was in a dream-state now, taking her hand to steady her in a dazed fashion, not hearing a word of what the priest had been saying. It was his turn for vows and suddenly he was fumbling in his pockets, searching for the scrap of paper that held everything and nothing that he wanted to say. He pulled it out with trembling fingers that were moving so much he couldn't even see the scrawl; fingers that stilled when she reached out to hold his other hand. His vows were short, swift, and sweet and written with help from Glenn.

"Beth," he began, voice rougher than usual as he looked into her blue eyes. "You brought me back when I was lost. You were my tether. You're everything to me; the sun wouldn't rise if I didn't have you to wake up to. I love you with everything I have, heart and soul, and will until the day I die. That's a promise I make to you now, in front of everyone you love, in front of everyone we know, from now until the end of time." His paper fell from his fingers but he didn't care enough to pick it up, not now, not when everything was about _her_. Beth needed no papers, no encouragement, her singer's voice carrying across the crowd with ease.

"You're it, Daryl. You're the reason I breathe, why I find good in the world. You're the epitome of everything I want out of life, proof that if you just work hard enough that everything will work out. You took to my crazy, wonderful life like you'd been born to it. My family loves you like you'd been born into it. You're a good man, the kind of man I want to teach our kids to be." She dropped his fingers and reached out to brush away another tear that was sliding down his face, encouraging him with a smile. "You're selfless and courageous and funny and smart and kind. I love you more than I ever thought would be possible. Becoming your wife is the best thing that could ever happen to me." Silence fell and even though there were people watching this felt like the most intimate moment in the world. It was just the two of them and he was staring at her like he had found God, affirmation of heaven. Like he had found something to live for, the other half of his soul. She had tamed him from a feral creature into a man, made him realize that in order to deserve her he needed to improve. Dimly in the back of his head he could hear the priest.

"I now pronounce you man and wife."

Daryl cradled her face in his palms and kissed her as though he could steal all the oxygen from her cells.


End file.
